⁍ Kerala could become the first state in India to make it illegal for health care professionals or religious leaders to try to alter people’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

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⁍ conversion therapies to make LGBT+ people straight can involve everything from beatings and ‘corrective rape’ to electric shocks and forced nudity.

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⁍ The United Nations has called for a global ban on conversion therapies, but worldwide, only three countries – Brazil, Ecuador and Malta – have nationwide bans.

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– A high court in India has agreed to hear a petition calling for a ban on so-called “gay conversion” therapies—a move that could make it the first state in the world to do so, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports. The petition was filed by LGBT rights group Queerala after a 22-year-old woman named Aswathi was forced to undergo hormone tests and counseling in the Indian state of Kerala to be “cured” of her homosexuality. Aswathi’s mother said her daughter’s refusal to get married made her an embarrassment to the family. “We’ll investigate why you’re not interested in intercourse with a man,” the doctor told Aswathi. “You have to get admitted here and we need to do some tests to check what is wrong with you … Conclusions can only be drawn based on the test results and there will also be counseling sessions.” Such therapies, which have no scientific backing, can involve everything from beatings and “corrective rape” to electric shocks and forced nudity. A recent survey found that about 20 mental health centers in Kerala were conducting conversion therapy, and Queerala says it has received calls from 40 survivors who say they were subjected to such therapies. Anjana Harish, a bisexual student, killed herself in May after posting a video on Facebook in which she described being sedated and kept in a cell for six weeks at a Christian-run mental health center. “I was given some 40 injections … I was mentally and physically broken,” she said. “My own family did this to me.” The Kerala High Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the petition, which will decide whether conversion therapy can be allowed in the state.